Conspiracy Theory in America (University of Texas Press)

deHaven-Smith

The term “conspiracy theory” has become shorthand for ideas
deemed crazy. While it’s true that many such theories are the hobbyhorses of
fanatics, conspiracies really do occur. Can we always be certain conspiracies
aren’t being hatched at the highest levels? That’s the salutary message of
Florida State University political science professor Lance deHaven-Smith. His
plea against being too quick to dismiss unconventional ideas or overlook
patterns of “coincidence” is well taken, yet deHaven-Smith weakens his argument
by appearing to entertain some way-out theories. The World Trade Center
imploded from explosive devices? George H.W. Bush was in on the attempted Reagan
assassination? The latter would prove that even well laid conspiracies can be
thwarted by apparently random responses. (David Luhrssen)

Edmund Burke in America: The Contested Career of the Father of Modern

Conservatism (Cornell University Press), by Drew Maciag

American conservatives celebrate Edmund Burke, but according
to historian Drew Maciag, the British philosopher-politician might be
uncomfortable with the company he’s posthumously been keeping. As with many
profound writers, people “tend to find what they are seeking” in Burke. A
contemporary of our Founding Fathers who sympathized with the American
Revolution, Burke was for religious tolerance and curbing capital punishment
and slavery. He was appalled by the violence of the French Revolution, which
put him on the wrong side of leftists who favor bullets over ballots. Maciag
finds Burke far more advanced in his thinking than previously credited. Like a
Freudian a century too soon, Burke was skeptical of the power of reason, which
he saw as the servant of unarticulated desires and impulses and the often-unacknowledged
prejudices at the base of human psychology. (David Luhrssen)

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